An Australian Warhammer 40K Podcast

Wintercon 2016 Warhammer 40K ITC Tournament – TO’s report

Hi Guys,

It’s Scott here once again and this article is following on in the series I started after the Jolt Games April ITC Tournament. So this is going to be another TO’s Report for the Wintercon 2016 Major ITC Tournament that was held on the 16th & 17th of July at the Wintercon Convention held at EPIC. This one will be a bit shorter than my previous one guys, but will still have plenty of content available due to the size, so lets dig into it.

OverviewSo the tournament was 1850 Points with 5 games being played over 2 days. The format was almost identical to that used at the Jolt Games April ITC Tournament, but with an increased points cap to 650pts to be avalaible to spend on any Super Heavies/Gargantuan Creatures Lord of War choices.The Missions that were in use were my own Modified ITC Missions that better suit the Australian Tournament scene as well as using the straight ITC FAQ. In the end, there was 61 Players out of the 64 Player capacity I had, which was a huge turn out and one I’m quite humbled by as a TO running this large of an event for the first time.

FormatBuilding upon the Jolt Games April ITC Tournament, I had increased the SH/GC Lord of War allowance from 500pts to 650pts. Now I believe that with the amount at were present at the event, that they weren’t overbearing for the Meta game, but players still had to plan to face a Imperial Knight or Wraightknight, etc etc.

Now as for Armies that contained a LoW was around 34% of Players were fielding one. Now the ones that were present are plentiful, but the most common ones were Imperial/Renegade/Chaos Knights or Regular/Skathach Wraightknight. That being said there were a few odd ones out, like a Shadowsword and a Dimaceron as well.

The Meta

Now the Meta at Wintercon was quite diverse compared to my previous events. I’m going to break down the Meta into Primary ITC Faction (which is the faction with the most points spent in it) and the Secondary faction.

So, even with a more diverse Meta game, there was just over 40% of the field playing Space Marines Primary in some form. But this has dropped for just over half at the April Jolt ITC Tournament. So maybe there is something there that I’ll dig a bit deeper into at some point. It’s also important to note, that just under 41% of the field were using allies of some kind in there army, with the most common being either Imperial/Renegade Knights, Eldar

As a TO, I was expecting there to be more of both Tau and Eldar at the tournament as well as certain really good army builds, like Warp Spiders Spam, War Convocation, Battle Company, etc. However, in saying that there was one common formation that almost everyone using this faction had, and it was the Tau Empire Riptide Wing formation. This was very prevalent in the Tau Meta, even though there was only 7 Tau Players. There were some 3 Man Riptide Wings, but some were 5 Man Riptide Wings as well, which I honestly was not expecting to see apart from 1 at most. Every Faction was represented at Wintercon, which is great to see for a tournament and something I’d expect with this many players.

The MissionsThe Missions that were in use at the Tournament were the same ones as the Jolt Games April ITC Tournament. Now, in the TO Report article for that event I explain them in depth, so check that one out to get more insight into it. So over the weekend, there were tones of occasions where the combine player scores were over 20 Mission Points, which I’d expect to see with this many players. The majority of the players really enjoyed the missions and thought they were great to play.

ConclusionThe tournament was an excellent success, considering that same event last year only had 24 Players and the year before that 28, so that’s the winner for it in my books. Everyone to my knowledge had a great weekend playing 5 games of 40K. Now, for the Prizes I had just over $2000 worth of Trophies and Prize Support to give away. I was only able to do this because of the following sponsors:
– Titan Miniatures Commission Painting
– KR Multicase
– Kromlech
– Jolt Games
– Frontline Gaming
– Krause Building Solutions

Now, here’s the break down of who got what Prizes:

1st Overall – Jeremy M. from VIC of Menaz Gaming using Tau Empire
2nd Overall – Arawn N. from NSW of Maximum Joltage using Tau Empire
3rd Overall – Tom B. from NSW of Overwatch Wargaming using Chaos Daemons and Chaos Space Marines
Best General – Andrew G. from NSW using Eldar and also came 4th Overall (Honourable Mention to Matt M. Who got the most Battlepoints, however did not qualify for Prize Support)
Renaissance Man – Adam T. from NSW using Chaos Space Marines and a Renegade Knight
Best Sportsman – Sebastian G. from NSW who was attending his first Tournament!
Best Painted – Dylan C. with some beautifully painted Tau Empire
Player’s Choice – Craig A. who was using Blood Angels, Sisters of Battle and a Imperial Knight
Encouragement Award – Josh M. who was using an Astra Militarum Tank Company including a Shadowsword

There were plenty of other prizes given away to bracket winners and lucky door prizes as well.

So that about wraps it up for the TO report for this tournament guys. Now stay posted as I will be doing a breakdown of the top 10 Armies in terms of Battlepoints at the event as well as our next episode being all about Wintercon as well.